Kushi
Kushi is the rice-growing, sake-brewing young woman living in Kamiki Village. She is very gentle and soft-spoken, for the most part, and is the first true human friend to Amaterasu. She is the wife of Susano and later adopted a son named Kuni. Story ''Ōkami When Amaterasu first encounters Kushi, she is just a simple sake brewer. Brewing sake is something she does extremely well, as many of the villagers comment upon its legendary quality. A jug of Kushi's sake inspires Susano to finally make his way out of his basement and remove the boulder blocking entrance into the village. Later, for the Kamiki Festival, she works to make the legendary 8 Purification Sake made from water at the sacred spring in Agata Forest where Issun and Amaterasu meet her again on their hunt for the lost Canine Warriors, attempting to fill a huge water barrel (neccessary to provide enough sake for all the villagers plus the sacred tree) with the sacred Hitoshio Spring water and bring it back to Kamiki. When Susano drinks the entire stock of sacred sake shortly before the festival, Kushi brings forth her famous Thunder Brew. When Orochi becomes more powerful, he selects Kushi to be the all-important maidenly sacrifice that will bring him back to power during the village's historic festival. Kushi heads off to the Moon Cave, trusting Susano to come save her in the end, even though he is hiding in his house. She is carried on the back of Amaterasu and bears a jug of the leftover Thunder Brew that she hopes to use to intoxicate Orochi so she can be rescued. Amaterasu engages in battle with Orochi, fighting him with the power of the Thunder Brew, and eventually Susano comes to team up with her to defeat Orochi once and for all. After her rescue, she and Susano finally express their love for each other; they spend a quiet night in the Cave of Nagi during the rest of the Kamiki Festival, she hints at being able to see Ammy's true form, at least from after she repaired the water wheel, also refering to the spring water flying into the barrel and the more recent fight against Orochi, telling her that she won't speak too much about her. After the Festival, she remains in Kamiki Village, working on the sake for next year, offering support for Susano, and offers her usual kind words to Amaterasu and Issun. Ōkamiden Kushi reappears in ''Ōkamiden as the wife of Susano and the foster mother of Kuni. She retains her position as sake brewer in Kamiki Village. It is revealed at the end of the game that Kushi is expecting a baby. Susano and her decided to name the baby after Kuni, intentionally with the same name. Appearance Kushi wears a yellow and red kimono patterned with rice grains on the sleeves, as well as a red hakama, presumably to keep her kimono clean as she works to make sake. Her long kimono sleeves are tied at the bottoms for the same reason. She wears three bales of rice on her head to mark her status as a sake maker. When she is selected as Orochi's sacrifice victim, she wears a white and light blue formal funeral kimono to the battle. Personality Kind-hearted and good natured, she is one of the first characters Amaterasu meets on her journey, and is one of the first residents of the village to be openly kind to the white wolf and her companion Issun; often, if Amaterasu comes near her while she works in her rice paddy, she will stop and run forward to give Amaterasu a few scratches of affection. Kushi is also remarkably patient, willing to put up with Susano's antics; she is the only one not angered with him when he drinks all her sake and doesn't complain when he leaves her to carry the extraordinarily heavy sacred water barrel back to Kamiki from Agata Forest. busy with other things. There's no need to bother him with this. I'm sure I can manage on my own from here, anyway.|Kushi|Ōkami}} Kushi also a person of strong faith, believing firmly in the gods. It is revealed after Orochi's defeat that she was one of the few who could see Amaterasu's divine markings almost from the beginning, after the sun goddess fixes her broken mill wheel. Trivia *In Shinto legends, Kushinadahime (櫛名田比売 or 奇稲田姫) is a girl intended to be sacrificed to Yamata-no-Orochi but was saved by Susanoo, who turned her into a comb which he hid in his own hair. Because of this legend, Kushi's hairstyle in the game is designed to look like a traditional Japanese comb. *It is possible that Kushi had been pregnant for a whole 8 to 9 months, because her stomach was distended at the end of Ōkamiden. References Category:Characters in Ōkami Category:Characters in Ōkamiden